World

Husband Dies in Fatal Sledding Accident With Wife

OFF PISTE

The pair skidded off track before plunging more than 200 feet during a deadly accident in the Austrian Alps.

A photo taken on October 12, 2024 from the Sonnblick Observatory near Rauris, Austria, shows the Grossglockner, with 3798 metres Austria's highest mountain, in the Hohe Tauern mountain range. Experts say warmer temperatures across the Alps driven by climate change are accelerating glacier melt and thawing permafrost -- the year-round ice found at high altitude that binds together giant slabs of rock. This has increased the danger of sudden rockfalls and landslides, damaging paths and adding stress to the mountains' often-ageing huts. Austria's Alpine clubs are currently closing up to four huts a year as they have become unsafe or too costly to be maintained. (Photo by KERSTIN JOENSSON / AFP) (Photo by KERSTIN JOENSSON/AFP via Getty Images)
KERSTIN JOENSSON/AFP via Getty Images

A husband is dead and his wife is critically injured after the pair fell more than 200 feet during a sledding accident in the Austrian Alps. The victim, 63, was sledding down Rabantalm mountain with his wife, 53, on Thursday, when their toboggan skidded off track and sent them plunging down a sheer, 82-foot rock face before tumbling a further 164 feet down a 55-degree slope in a nearby wooded area, local media reports. “The husband suffered fatal injuries in the fall, and his wife sustained critical injuries,” police said in a statement. “Sledders coming up the mountain noticed the fresh toboggan track extending beyond the edge of the road, heard screams, and called for help.” The couple’s daughter and son-in-law, who had accompanied them on the trip, attempted to perform first aid upon discovering their bodies, but the father was pronounced dead at the scene by an emergency physician and the wife was airlifted to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries. Her current condition remains unknown.

Read it at People

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.